Quick Facts: American dream turning into nightmare for middle class

Job Crisis

The competition for decent jobs in America has gotten absolutely insane. There have been reports of people actually getting down on their knees and begging for jobs. Many Americans are starting to wonder if they will ever get a decent job again. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average duration of unemployment in the United States is now an all-time record 39 weeks. theeconomiccollapseblog.com

According to the Wall Street Journal, there are 5.5 million Americans that are unemployed and yet are not receiving unemployment benefits.

The number of “low income jobs” in the U.S. has risen steadily over the past 30 years and they now account for 41 percent of all jobs in the United States.

Only 66.8% of American men had a job last year. That was the lowest level that has ever been recorded in all of U.S. history. www.usatoday.com

There are now about 7.25 million fewer jobs in America than when the recession began back in 2007.

The United States has lost an average of about 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

Rising Cost of Life

A New York post analysis has found that the rate of inflation in New York City has been about 14 percent over the past year.

The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States is now up to $3.91 a gallon. news.yahoo.com

Over the past 12 months the average price of gasoline in the United States has gone up by about 30%. theeconomiccollapseblog.com

Spending on energy now accounts for more than 6 percent of all consumer spending. Every time this has happened since 1970 we have also had a recession that followed. cnbc.com

The average American driver will spend somewhere around $750 more for gasoline in 2011. cnbc.com

Poverty

In the United States, over 20 percent of all children are living in poverty. In the UK and in France that figure is well under 10 percent. alternet.org

According to the U.S. Census, the number of children living in poverty has gone up by about 2 million in just the past 2 years. Economyincrisis.org

The wealthiest 1% of all Americans now own more than a third of all the wealth in the United States. Businessinsider.com

The poorest 50% collectively own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States. Businessinsider

The wealthiest 1% of all Americans own over 50% of all the stocks and bonds. businessinsider.com

According to a new report from the AFL-CIO, the average CEO made 343 times more money than the average American did last year. economyincrisis.org

59 percent of all Americans now receive money from the federal government in one form or another. zerohedge.com

Total credit card debt in the United States is now more than 8 times larger than it was just 30 years ago. endoftheamericandream.com

Cost of College

The average cost of tuition, room and board at America’s public universities is now $16,000 a year. For America’s private universities, that figure is $37,000 a year. usatoday.com

The cost of college tuition in the United States has gone up by over 900 percent since 1978. benzinga.com

Approximately two-thirds of all college students graduate with student loan debt. theeconomiccollapseblog

17 million college graduates are doing jobs that do not even require a college degree. businessinsider.com

Healthcare

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980. Today they account for approximately 16.3%. businessinsider

One study found that approximately 41 percent of working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt. endoftheamericandream

Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid. businessinsider

Housing Crisis

During the first three months of this year, less new homes were sold in the U.S. than in any three month period ever recorded. goldshark.com

Home sales in the United States are now down 80% from the peak in July 2005. money.cnn.com

U.S. home prices have now declined 32% from the peak of the housing bubble. money.cnn.com

For most middle class families, the family home is the number one financial asset. Unfortunately, U.S. home values have declined an astounding 6.3 trillion dollars since the housing crisis first began. mybudget360.com

According to a recent census report, 13% of all homes in the United States are currently sitting empty. Yahoonews

The housing crisis just seems to keep on getting worse. 31 percent of the homeowners that responded to a recent Rasmussen Reports survey indicated that they are “underwater” on their mortgages. Thehill.com

Unfortunately, it looks like millions more middle class Americans could soon be in danger of losing their homes. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, at least 8 million Americans are at least one month behind on their mortgage payments at this point. USnews.com